Behind The Scenes On The #HeForShe Campaign

Earlier this year FutureBrand and the Human Rights Commission launched a campaign under the banner of the Future is Equal at the Cannes Lions Creativity Festival. This campaign marked the Supreme Court ruling to offer protection and equal rights to LGBT individuals in the areas of domestic partnership/marriage, employment and legal protection. Following on from the success of this campaign this month the London office held our first lunch time talk under the same banner – this time focusing on the issue of gender equality.

We were delighted to host Adam Mack and Kate Sloan, from our IPG sister agency Weber Shandwick, to speak about their work on the UN Women’s HeForShe campaign. Some of you may know this campaign as the one fronted by Actor Emma Watson. Her involvement, and the support of her male counterparts, has helped encourage men to speak up for women in the workplace and beyond. The campaign focused around every day aspects, like how we speak about gender, and how these points can skew our view of girls growing up and reinforce unfair biases that disadvantage women. Adam and Kate talked us through the workshopping that went on behind the scenes with Emma and the importance of getting countries as well as individuals, to take notice and commit to this cause.

We had a really lively discussion afterwards about the trend towards femvertising and other campaigns and brands that we have seen making a difference on this front in the past few years. Increasingly we’re seeing brands respond to this issue in new and empowering ways. Over the past two years campaigns, like Always’ Like A Girl campaign, that challenge the way we speak to young women and This Girl Can by Sports England which encourages girls to take part in sports.

Global movements, like Lean In, led by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, show that there is certainly enough momentum to fuel this shift. Like the HeForShe movement Lean In has also called on men to raise their voices in support of the women in their lives with their LeanInTogether hashtag. Furthermore their Getty Image partnership, entitled the the Lean In Collection, put forward a refreshed view of womanhood with their contemporary depiction of women in the workplace, their homes and as mothers. All of which is making inequality an issue for both genders to solve and in a manner that everyone benefits from.

Laura Ford

Laura is a Senior Brand Strategist, trained in both industrial and spatial design, before entering brand strategy. She joined FutureBrand London in 2013 with four year’s experience in digital, design and brand strategy, both freelance and agency side, coming from Designworks, Australasia’s top strategic design group. Her expertise spans luxury, FMCG, pharmaceutical, retail banking, fashion retail, sports apparel, property development, telecommunications, higher education and logistics. Laura's approach to branding is a mix of curiosity, lateral thinking and imagination and with a Masters in Spatial design her special areas of focus are trends, creative strategy, visual semiotics and naming. Her clients at FutureBrand include Bentley, Topshop, Topman, Post Office, SCA Feminine Care, Nestlé Dairy and Nestlé Purina.